DE GUICHE:
Have you read 'Don Quixote'?
CYRANO:
I have!
DE GUICHE:
Then I counsel you to study the windmill chapter!. . . windmill sails may sweep you down into the mud!. . .
CYRANO:
Or upward - to the stars!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Getting High

They’re building the city up –steel rods soaring on the end of a cranejackhammers thumping –That’s what they’re thinking –They’re building the city upthat’s what keeps them going when they dream who they are –They do it first for their familiesand then so they can shout the next roundbut they have to be someone too –They're building the city upTo her they’re just hurting her headThat’s what her heroin mindshouts through the morning hazeShe screams back at them to shut upfirst blindly as she passes the pugilist's cafethen straight at themwhen bearings are zeroedfrom outside the Silver ScreenShe could be twenty-five or fortyShe doesn’t care about anything except the noiseSoon she’ll have more on her mindbut the noise is cutting througheverything just nowShe shoves her hands deep downthe back of her black bicycle shortsand screams that she’ll show them her arse!If they don’t shut up she’ll show them her arse and they can kiss it!The workmen laugh and look at each otherwith that expression that says ‘not another one’ –these poor suburban boyshave been learning a few thingssince they started working ‘The Cross’One shouts ‘go on then, you slut’ down at herShe just screams more obscenities andstarts asking cafe customersfor a cigarette then a lightSome people laughsome half-laugh embarrassedothers bury their facesin their café lattes and cappuccinosAfter a while standing with her leg cocked on a bollardsmoking her fag and howling at the skyit’s time to make for the methadone clinicThe workmen pound more steel into their leviathanmore caffeine goes roundand the world keeps getting higher.